There were the fairy tales my father told to me at bedtime. All the standards. I thought my father invented wolves.

I grew up in a house without many books. The books the nuns made us read in school didn't interest me.

In revision, your imagination becomes deeply engaged with your material. It's when you come to know your characters and begin to perceive their motivations and values.

A pure love is a selfless love, but can desire ever be selfless?

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

Drug programs began to turn their attention and money away from prevention and into maintenance. Methadone was cheaper than social workers, I suppose.

A lack of narrative structure, as you know, will cause anxiety.

You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even know it.

Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved.

Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.

The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.

People's lives take them strange places. They do strange things, and... well, sometimes they can't talk about them.

Time and place often give advantage to the weak over the strong.

'What I believe' is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.

Every failure can be considered as a tragedy or a chance to learn something. The latter is healthier

Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her language

It must be important or he wouldn't dare disturb me now,” he muttered. Then he drew away to look at me. “If it's not, I'll kill him and return to you directly.

I suppose when some people see you on TV, they expect you to be this flamboyant, champagne-drinking stud. But I'm not like that.

Look, not everybody plays well with each other on the playground. I get that, that's politics.

What you understand, you know; and what you know, you don't forget.

If you're going to be an artist, you have to create music that moves you, and to not try to fit in so much with what's happening around you. It's a career choice.